our birth story (kateitho)

kateitho · August 2014

We were scheduled for a midnight induction, so we headed to L&D at 11:30 on Sunday the 24th. They let us get settled in, took an hour long strip on our little guy, and checked my cervix which was still only just over 1 cm dilated. Around 1:45am on Monday the 25th, they had me take Cytotek orally to help dilate and efface my cervix. Nothing was really happening, so DH cuddled up in the hospital bed with me, and we slept most of the night. At 8am, I took another dose of Cytotek orally because I was still not making much progress. By 2:30, my contractions were getting closer and a little bit more intense, so I was feeling hopeful, but my cervix was still just at 1 1/2 cm dilated, and 75% effaced, so we switched to a vaginal dose of Cytotek, which we repeated at 6:30. My OB showed up at about 7:30, checked my cervix, and saw that it was really soft by that point, almost/barely 2 cm dilated, and contractions were sitting at about 5 minutes apart. She broke my water, and ordered Pitocin, which I never got.

Things started getting active at that point. Within a half hour, contractions got really painful and down to about a minute long and 2 minutes apart. I paged the nurse. She went ahead and checked me at my insistence. I was at 4 1/2 cm, fully effaced and baby was fully engaged! Woohoo! We were making progress, but my baby's shoulder was angled into my hip, and it was intense and very painful during contractions, and not much better between. I asked for a dose of IV pain meds. Everything kept getting more intense and painful even with the IV pain medication, so about an hour later, I asked for an epidural. The anesthesiologist was awesome, and got it right in less than a minute on the first try. It took about 25 minutes for it to be fully effective, but then, it was bliss! I slept until about 12:30 , when my sister showed up to check on us. I told her that something felt weird, and she called the nurse.

The nurse came and did a cervical check, said I was at 9 cm, and called my OB. My sister woke up DH, who was passed out on the sofa bed in the the room. My OB was there within a half hour, and by that point, I was at a 10, and it was time to have a baby! My contractions were about a minute long and a minute and a half apart. I got three good pushes per contraction, and it only took 6 contractions to have my sweet baby! I got to feel his head between contractions, and it was so powerful and reassuring to know that he was really almost here. Our little man was handed straight to me, and he didn't even cry. He was just super alert and looking around like he was trying to see the whole world at once. I was mesmerized by my sweet baby and din't find out about the chaos that was happening with my body until after we made to the Mother/Baby Unit. At that moment, I was just so happy to hold and kiss my baby. I ugly cried the whole time. My Jericho was finally here after all this time. Once I finally calmed down enough, I held our baby while DH cut the cord. It was a perfect magical moment for us. Our baby that we had hoped and prayed for was finally safe from my body. He weighed 7 lbs 2.5 oz, was 19 inches long, and has just the tiniest amount of silky soft light brown hair. We named him Jericho Clark, and he is perfect.

Now for the crazy scary part that I didn't know was happening...

After Jericho was born, my OB had me give one last push to deliver the placenta, which came out easily and completely intact. The problem happened when my uterus also inverted, prolapsed, and followed it out. Usually this results in massive hemorrhaging, blood transfusions, and possibly surgery or even hysterectomy, but none of that happened. She thinks it might have been because of my Marfan Syndrome, but she just manhandled it back into place, waited a minute, it fell back out, and she put it back for good one last time. She also relocated my hip, which I guess I dislocated while pushing because I couldn't feel anything, and I was just so determined to get my baby outside and into my arms!

Recovery has been smooth and easy as long as I remember to take my Motrin on time. I have great energy levels again already, and we've even been out of the house a few times so far.Our only struggle right now is my milk supply hasn't fully came in yet, and Jericho dropped down to 6 lbs 6 oz by Saturday. His pediatrician has us continuing to nurse, but then supplementing with 1 1/2oz of whole goat's milk after each breast feeding. He seems much happier and more content. The only downside is that he smells like feta cheese when he spits up or burps now...

Thanks for reading, now some sweet pictures of my Mr. Mooch! (I know, I am bad at nicknaming my baby! lol)

This image has been resized to fit in the page. Click to enlarge.